Abstract
In recent years, the research regarding waste conversion to resources technology has attracted growing attention with the continued increase of waste accumulation issues and rapid depletion of natural resources. However, the study, with respect to utilizing plastics waste as carbon resources in the metals industry, is still limited. In this work, an environmentally friendly approach to utilize snack packaging plastic waste as a valuable carbon resources for steel carburization is investigated. At high temperature, plastic waste could be subject to pyrolytic gasification and decompose into small molecular hydrocarbon gaseous products which have the potential to be used as carburization agents for steel. When heating some snack packaging plastic waste and a steel sample together at the carburization temperature, a considerable amount of carbon-rich reducing gases, like methane, could be liberated from the plastic waste and absorbed by the steel sample as a carbon precursor for carburization. The resulting carburization effect on steel was investigated by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, electron probe microanalyzer, and X-ray photoelectron spectrometer techniques. These investigation results all showed that snack packaging plastic waste could work effectively as a valuable carbon resource for steel carburization leading to a significant increase of surface carbon content and the corresponding microstructure evolution in steel.
Highlights
Steel carburization is a widely-used case hardening method to enhance steel wear, corrosion, and fatigue resistance without sacrificing its toughness and machinability [1]
Modern carburizing processes are dominated by high-temperature gas carburization, which uses natural gas consisting primarily of methane to serve as the carbon resource for steel carburization [3]
All the investigation results revealed the snack chips packaging plastic work wasteas did effectively work as results revealed the snack chips packaging plastic waste did effectively a carbon precursor a carbon precursor for steel carburization by giving rise to a remarkable increase of surface carbon concentration and the corresponding microstructure evolution formed on the steel surface
Summary
Steel carburization is a widely-used case hardening method to enhance steel wear, corrosion, and fatigue resistance without sacrificing its toughness and machinability [1]. It is a process in which low carbon steel is immersed in a carbon-rich atmosphere to make activated free carbon deposit on the steel surface and be absorbed under the condition of high temperature [2]. Modern carburizing processes are dominated by high-temperature gas carburization, which uses natural gas consisting primarily of methane to serve as the carbon resource for steel carburization [3]. Plastics are a group of synthetic materials consisting of carbon as a sole or major element [5] A carbon-based material derived from petrochemicals, has a significant potential to be used as a carburizing agent for steel carburization.
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